"Contempt" offers Jean-Luc Godard in his French New Wave success

Iconic French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard needs no introduction, but reminders of his cinematic genius are delightful and welcome. Such is the case with the 4K restoration of his 1963 “Contempt/Le Mépris,” charting the unraveling of an already fragile marriage as screenwriter Paul and wife Camille circle each other guardedly, engaging and retreating.

Interfering, obnoxious film producer Jeremy Prokosch (a leering, sleazy Jack Palance) flirts with Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as husband Paul (Michel Piccoli) oscillates between writing an adaptation of “The Odyssey” for Prokosch. Fritz Lang, himself, will direct in Italy’s huge Cinecittà facility. Rambling, the story proceeds through three acts: in a Cinecittà screening room and Prokosch’s villa, in Paul and Camille’s Rome apartment, and at the splendid Villa Malaparte, seaside in Capri.  

Events meander, with exploitation throughout of Bardot’s sex appeal. Shooting through doorways or lingering on Bardot’s body, Godard mocks filmic practice and expectations, teasing us with talk of love and murder as abusive, jealous, ambitious Paul becomes the target of Camille’s contempt. Iconoclastic, Godard reinterprets formulaic cinema and creates his own idiosyncratic technical and thematic approach.

Overscored, the music overpowers scenes with the melancholy of Georges Delerue’s compositions, communicating characters’ ennui and detachment amidst lush landscapes that collide with Greek statues and Capri’s rocky cliffs, all suggesting austere emotions. Throughout, cinematographer Raoul Coutard’s 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio emphasizes lonely characters within vast spaces or, alternately, isolates them in close-ups. Visually, primary colors intensify backgrounds as well as costumes. Yes, it’s good to become reacquainted with Godard in this legendary film that he described as “about a woman, a man, Italy, and cinema.”

In French, English, Italian, and German with English subtitles, a new 4K restoration of “Contempt/Le Mépris” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Thursday, May 16; Friday, May 17; and Sunday, May 19, at 7:30 each of those evenings.  For more information, you may visit the film series website.